The Stupa of Borobudur in Java is one of the architectural wonders of the world,designed as both a mandala and as an aid for the Buddhist pilgrim that can be read as a holy book. It has inspired Anne Waldman to create a work which is at once a walking meditation, a “cultural intervention,” a “recovery” of a sacred site, and a take on contemporary reality and how the busy “monkey brain” (as it is called in Buddhism) works and travels. Exploratory and meditative, even playful at times, it expands the sense of invocation and incantation that Waldman is celebrated for, while also reflecting an engaged political/cultural awareness. Structure of the World Compared to a Bubble, Anne Waldman, Penquin Poets, 105 pp. $18.00

Anne Waldman (born April 2, 1945) is an American poet who is associated with the group known as the Beats. Waldman was born in Millville, New Jersey. She received her B.A. from Bennington College in 1966. During the 1960s, along with poets, Gregory Corso and Allen Ginsberg, Waldman became part of the East Coast poetry scene, giving frequent readings at the St. Mark's Church Poetry Project. She ran the project from 1966-1978. She has published eighteen books of poetry.

With Allen Ginsberg, she founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.